I came to hear about AZIGZA by browsing PA two years ago and got a hold of their s/t Azigza album and fell for it.

Fusion is indeed the order of the day but not only jazz-rock fusion but other world music elements as well.

Here's their PA bio:

AZIGZA's debut is an outstanding blend of truly progressive music... Combining Middle Eastern, Arabic, Indian, African, as well as hints of Celtic and Native American influences with traditional rock. They play all sorts of instruments: guitars, harp, electric violin and percussion instruments into a stirring whole... Very good sense of dynamics and lots of compositional interest. They are an excellent band mixing a powerful percussive and hypnotic music.. Musically ... a cross between Daevid Allen era GONG, CURVED AIR and DEAD CAN DANCE. I will say that they were in a word: AMAZING!!!

AZIGZA — Azigza

It makes sense that I discovered AZIGZA purely by chance, while recently trolling the Internet. This is a band with the sort of global perspective not often heard before the age of the World Wide Web, and listening to their year 2000 debut album is like having a passport to a perfumed Middle Eastern oasis, or following the caravan trail across a wind-swept Central Asian plateau.

Never mind the supposed Celtic influence mentioned elsewhere on their pages here at Prog Archives. To me the group looks and sounds more like a post-modern folk ensemble from backwoods Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan, augmented with a fretless bass and lots of electric violins. But in fact they actually hail from an even more exotic cultural outpost: the San Francisco Bay Area, and as a native son in exile I can be excused for making a crack like that.

The six member line-up is for the most part devoted to playing obscure ethnic percussion and allsorts, but make no mistake: this isn’t just another arid exercise in ersatz World Music anthropology. Underneath the colorful wardrobe, and even more arcane instrumentation (kanjeera, djembe, doumbek, and zils), beats a heart of genuine rock ‘n’ roll, strong enough to include an unlikely but energetic Led Zeppelin cover: the song "Friends", off the LZ III album.

The music is by turns lush and romantic, or sharp and jagged, but always with enough melodic appeal to sound relaxed and spontaneous even when the time signatures require a scorecard: check out the subtle, daredevil twists and turns of "Zaman". The mood is enhanced by the seductive vocals of Cyoakha Grace (singing in English, which only slightly spoils the album’s rich, otherworldly flavor), and by some truly beautiful tunes, ranging from the dreamy, ethereal "Petra" (featuring GONG's Daevid Allen as a guest guitarist) to the sinuous Arabian Night groove of "Edallah ya Rashidi", and from there to the more contemporary, guitar-driven Prog sounds of "Remember" and "Glass".

It’s hard to imagine a band like this existing a mere generation ago. But these days, with even the farthest horizon only a mouse-click away, the music of AZIGZA is the perfect companion for intrepid armchair travelers with an ear for esoteric rhythms and melodies.

AZIGZA — Azigza

This album was a wonderful surprise to me! I think the LED ZEPPELIN cover song on this album is much better than the original one, but I'm not very much into Zeps anyway. This record can also be used as an example, if somebody claims that there's no good progressive music coming out from the United States. I couldn't first find anything negative from it, but maybe this isn't so immortal music, as it didn't grasp my attention for a long time. Good ethnic related stuff still, so this is recommended sincerely for everybody who have appeal for such!

AZIGZA — Azigza

Hard to list the music of Azigza under a specific musical genre. Prog ? Not really but a highly original effort in any case. It’s a mixture of progressive rock, classical music, folk with eastern influences and even some fusion. Some prog listeners will find it strange that there’s no keyboards present in the line up but this is no problem at all. The songs are mainly driven by the voice and the stunning violin, viola and cello parts. But also the other instruments are handled very well. The electric guitars, mandolins, sitars are mainly used to support the excellent melodies and barely come to the front unlike the pumping bass lines. The line-up includes 3 percussionist who ad lots of variation in the percussion without getting the focus too much on the percussion. Unlike you could expect with a so many instruments around, the sound is not overblown by too many musical parts playing at the same time. The names of Lisa Gerard and even Toyah come to mind when hearing the gorgeous vocals of Cyoakha Grace but her voice is sounding a lot more eastern and is a delight to listen to especially when she reaches the higher tones. The music is very light and uplifting and suitable to be listened at on a beautiful summer morning. Most songs hold several changes in mood and atmosphere varying from esoteric or dreamy to sensual or even sharp in the up-tempo excerpts. The mysterious sounding tracks are compelling all the way. I suppose this will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Sometimes their sound is reminiscent to Curved Air while the unledded album of Jimmy Page & Robert Plant comes to mind when hearing the magnificent cover version of “friends” a Led Zep track. These similarities are minor, for a first album, this sounds rather unique. If you like to listen to violin, lovely female vocals and you ’ve got an open mind to ethnic music then this album is something for you.

Guests Reviews

AZIGZA — Azigza

A great and nice surpirse... Firts: the clean and lovely voice of Cyoakha Grace. Second: inetersting compositions with celtic, arabic and asian inffluences, with a great work on violin... It reminds me some songs by Ankh (a superb polish band) and even Led Zeppelin and Antichrisis...

Some songs to remember: Glass, Remember, Touch Moon Window, Zaman... perhaps the entire album is great. If you are a fanatic of prog mixed with ethnical, Azigza has to be in your collection...

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